IPL Playoffs - Looking Back and Ahead

"Every IPL (Indian Premier League) season is a different story" - the original IPL trailer, which aired on TV at the start of the season, seemed to say. IPL seasons have a penchant for upsets and the unexpected. This years IPL though had an upset, one too many. It was a bizarre season for many reasons. Three out of the four teams that made it to the play-offs are former champions and hence at the beginning of the season were expected to make it. However, the manner in which they made it befits the script of a psychological thriller. Yesterday's humdinger of a match summarised the season for the viewers in many ways.

Kings XI Punjab, this year's surprise package, was the only team that looked like a winner right throughout. Deservedly, they will get two shots at reaching the finals. Their brand of cricket was freshly soaked in intrepidity, thanks to handsome chunks of flair and flamboyance streaming out from Glenn Maxwell's bat. David Miller was the backup fountain, which spurted out every single time Maxwell (a Mumbai reject) failed to dig deep into his well of pyrotechnics. Add to that Virender Sehwag's newly discovered consistency, George Bailey's mocking calmness and Shaun Marsh's late-season adventure and Kings XI look formidable. They have a contributing all-rounder in Rishi Dhawan, another Mumbai Indians reject, who complements the good work done by the bowling pack led by an unlikely rookie, Sandeep Sharma.

Kolkata Knight Riders turned up at the party really late, but what really mattered was that they did. Their season started with their form reflecting their captain's wretched run, but something changed when they came back to familiar Indian grounds. Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir started piling the runs, the former leading the run charts and the latter scoring three successive fifties at one point. With an amazing seven-match winning streak and their players topping the economy and runs, KKR have discovered their mojo and peaked at the right time. That their long-lost strength, Yusuf Pathan, came back home and how, giving them the final push over CSK in the table, will give them tremendous momentum.

Chennai Super Kings were, and still are, mired in controversy when the season began. But, like R Ashwin remarked during the season, they wear a monkish mask, of the MS Dhoni ilk and get on with their jobs. Powered by a scintillating opening pair in Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith(a Mumbai reject), CSK had a rather smooth entry into the play-offs, barring the battering they got at the hands of Punjab which was candidly speaking, well deserved. Their batsmen and their bowlers are well-oiled in spite of a mini-losing streak towards the fag end. McCullum might be back in time for the play-offs and with David Hussey(pulled out of the commentary box) and Faf du Plessis finding some touch, CSK will be a formidable opponent for Mumbai Indians.

Mumbai Indians were a paradox this season. They were never meant to be in the play-offs, considering they lost their first 5 games. In spite of doing impressively well until the last game, they were never meant to be in the play-offs, not really. Scoring in excess of 190 in 14.3 overs might happen in a game of gods, not in a game of men. But Corey Anderson chose the occasion for his anointment as the next big thing in IPL. He can smash them, alright, but more importantly he is as cool as the serene ice-capped peaks of his country. Mumbai Indians, in spite of Ambati Rayudu's consistency and Rohit Sharma's presence, don't look like a winning team. But in T20, looks are highly irrelevant, especially when it is a team that pulled off a boundary not off the last ball but the one after that. MI made sure audiences understand that cricket could be a game of math; at times, bewilderingly so.

The play-offs promise two good things one that Punjab will play two matches, since if it is any team audiences would love to watch this season, it is them; and two,the finals this year would be at a neutral venue - Bangalore, a faithing to be honest. For the sake of this tournament, one would hope KXIP goes all the way. But, as the team that was never a favourite before, they will have to deal with 3 teams which know how to do it,two of which - KKR and MI are battle hardened by turning the tables multiple times in the same season.

Kings XI Punjab, this year's surprise package, was the only team that looked like a winner right throughout.